The Chicago White Sox had a historic run to a 2005 World Series title. As the 2016 World Series was about to commence multiple media outlets left the White Sox out when discussing Chicago’s Championships and World Series titles and appearances.
The White Sox World Series slights began with ESPN on Monday night. Max Bretos was discussing the amount of titles that Chicago and Cleveland had one since 1965 on Sportscenter. That was the year after Cleveland’s last title before the Cavaliers won in June. The Browns won the 1964 NFL Championship.
The Mothership credited Chicago with ten titles. Six by the 1990s Bulls, three by the Blackhawks since 2010 and the Bears victory in Superbowl XX. This only included titles in the four major sports. The scrawl on the Mike and Mike show referenced the “Suffering” Chicago fans have endured for 108 years. “Will Cubs save City from 108 Years of Suffering?”
Greenberg should know better. For the Mike and Mike show to post this is bordering on embarrassing. Greenberg covered Chicago sports throughout the 1990’s and Golic went to Notre Dame which has a sizeable amount of students from Chicago’s Southside and the Southern Suburbs.
Sportscenter host Max Bretos posted in a Tweet that has since been deleted that “I mentioned we did not include the White Sox, as Cub fans would not be fans of them.” The narrative in the Sportscenter segment seemed to come from above.
ESPN issued a statement through Awful Announcing that said: “We expect better of ourselves and apologize for our mistake. No excuses, we made an error.”
The next slight came from the CBS This Morning. A show that is a distant third in the ratings somehow left out the White Sox. At least the CBS Morning Show knows how the White Sox feel. They eventually would acknowledge their error after initially Tweeting “Wrigley Field is prepping this morning for an event Chicago hasn’t seen in 71 years: the World Series.”
CLARIFICATION: It's an event WRIGLEY FIELD hasn't seen in 71 years. Chicago hosted the WS in 2005. Apologies, @whitesox fans
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 24, 2016
The CBS Tweet not only slighted the White Sox 2005 title, it failed to mention their 1959 appearance as well.
The Washington Post was another major media outlet that snubbed the White Sox. Post writer Barry Svrluga wrote a story that was titled “As ’04 Red Sox can tell Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians that curse breaking has some benefits”
What’s what even more amazing about Svrluga’s article was his arrogance to try and downplay it. In a tweeted response to a fan who called him out Svrluga, who is the Post’s national baseball writer said that he was only talking about one group of fans.
This is a legitimate gripe, though really what I was trying to show was one group that could relate what these Cubs/Indians will feel. https://t.co/qv00zgxxyI
— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) October 25, 2016
It’s an unfathomable response. Three times in the article a curse is mentioned. Somehow a curse that actually did damage to a franchise, the Black Sox scandal never found its way into the article. Eight White Sox players were banned for life after they were alleged to throw the 1919 World Series. They were never convicted of any crimes.
About the multiple oversights of the White Sox, Andrew Buckholtz of Awful Announcing wrote:
"“Tell the story of the Cubs’ drought, but how about if we agree to make those stories just about the Cubs and stop using seemingly-wider-ranging graphics and segments that overlook the White Sox, intentionally or otherwise?”"
Kevin Draper of Deadspin had a brilliant satirical article about the White Sox 2005 run. He went game by game in the World Series and mentioned everything that “did not happen” He closed it the article by saying: “After that World Series victory, the Chicago White Sox faded into obscurity, remembered only by a select few” and showing a picture of President Obama in a White Sox hat.
Next: Cleveland Indians Fans Bring Goat to Progressive Field
Comcast Sports Net’s Chicago’s Christopher Kamka in response to all the ommissions might have coined a White Sox rallying cry to match the Cubs #Itsgonnahappen (sic). #Theyexist